The Clarkston City Council on May 2 voted unanimously to only detain people at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if the agency has a valid warrant.

Council members Mario Williams and Beverly Burks alleged that prior to the vote, ICE officials warned against adopting the new policy.

Councilperson Williams said ICE officials threatened to disrupt federal funding to the city and to put Clarkston on a list for not cooperating with officials. Recently, ICE has been arresting undocumented immigrants in Clarkston and elsewhere, but ICE officials have denied conducting any “special operation” in the city.

“It paints a dark cloud and a dark picture of what you’re actually doing and the manner you’re going about doing it,” Williams said.

Bryan Cox, a spokesperson for ICE, confirmed the meeting but disputed that officials with the agencies threatened city officials.

“All that our folks simply did was advise them if they take that action that ICE headquarters could potentially classify them as a sanctuary city,” he said, adding those decisions are not made at the local level.

The city of Clarkston’s new policy says the city will not detain any individual at the request of ICE unless the agency presents the city with a valid warrant. The new policy says, “City law enforcement officials shall not arrest, detain, extend the detention of, transfer custody of, or transport anyone solely on the basis of an ICE ‘detainer request’ or an ‘administrative immigration warrant,’ including an administrative immigration warrant in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.”

Councilperson Burks said the warning from ICE was unsettling, but said Clarkston needed to act to protect its immigrant community. The city is well known for accepting thousands of immigrants and refugees.

“It’s not a nice feeling to be put on a naughty list or be told you’ll be on a naughty list when you’re a grown woman,” Burks said. “You have to stop to think about what’s really important, and who is important. … I live in a beautiful community with such a diverse background. We have to do what we have to do.”

Editor’s note: Portions of this report were compiled by viewing a live video stream of the Clarkston City Council meeting.

Don’t miss a single story. Sign up for the Decaturish newsletter today!

Receive the Daily Email DIgest

Email Address*

First Name

Last Name

Zip Code

* = required field

Support Decaturish

Decaturish.com needs your support. We are asking our loyal readers and past contributors to pledge $6 per month to help us continue to provide quality local journalism without fear or favor. If you value having timely, accurate news about your community, please consider becoming one of our subscribers. Thank you.
PLEASE NOTE: Decaturish IS NOT a 501-c-3 organization.
Current subscriptions: 400+